The present invention relates to a wheel mounting arrangement, and more particularly to such a wheel mounting arrangement which enables the wheel axle to be quickly installed simply by operating a press knob.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,068, which is issued to the present inventor, discloses a golf cart wheel axle assembly having a holder plate connected to the frame of a golf cart to hold a wheel axle by a lock screw. When the wheel axle is installed, the lock screw must be screwed through a tapered hole on the wheel axle into a bolt hole on a tapered rod at the wheel axle. It takes much time to fasten or unfasten the lock screw. U.S. Pat. No. 5,658,054, which is another invention of the present inventor, indicates a wheel mounting structure including a wheel shaft fastened to a locating hole on the leg of a golf club carrier to hold a wheel, and lever pivoted to the leg and turned to lock the wheel shaft. The lever has a stop rod section and a retainer rod section which are respectively forced into engagement with a recessed bottom hole on a locating block at the wheel shaft and a bottom retaining groove on a collar at the wheel shaft when the lever is turned to the locking position to lock the wheel shaft on the leg of the golf club carrier. The main drawback of this wheel mounting structure is that the positioning parts wear quickly with use, causing a high noise to be produced.
It is one object of the present invention to provide a wheel mounting arrangement which can be conveniently assembled or dismounted simply by means of pressing down a press knob. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a wheel mounting arrangement which allows the golf cart user to mount/dismount the wheel by oneself without any special training.
According to the invention, a holder plate is connected to the frame of a golf cart to hold the rectangular coupling block of a wheel axle in a rectangular coupling hole thereon, and a press knob is slidably mounted in a hole on a holder plate and supported on a spring to lock the wheel axle on the holder plate. The press knob is disengaged from the rectangular coupling block of the wheel axle when it is depressed to compress the spring, enabling the wheel axle to be disconnected from the holder plate.